During his speech in the summit hosted by the United Nations to analyze that matter, the Head of State asked for progress in serious agreements, ambitious goals, verification tools and sanctions, in order to face the threat of climate change to the world.

Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec 17 (SP). President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, asked the countries gathered in the summit about climate change, which is being hold in Copenhagen (Denmark), to leave behind ideological discussions and move forward in the accomplishment of an agreement to save the planet from that huge threat.

“The essence of the agreement and its performance is not an ideological discussion, is a state of need for saving the planet that we will leave to next generations”, Uribe Vélez said in his speech at the XV United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Considering the seriousness of that subject, the Head of State invited the members of the conference to make a difference between serious agreements and just rhetoric.

“We must see the difference between serious agreements and rhetoric statements, we must see the difference in what an ideological discussion is, which should be defeated considering the climate crisis seriousness, and what a state of need is, the one that we are facing in order to save the planet from that threat”, he insisted.

Moreover, Uribe Vélez expressed that it is necessary to set some ambitious goals and sanctions to force the countries to have the most serious approach to face climate change.

“This meeting needs agreements, ambitious goals, verification tools and a sanction regime. Verification and sanctions make the difference between rhetoric speeches and serious obligations”, he added.

In his speech, the Colombian Leader asked to not ignore the fact that drug trafficking is the greatest depredator of the jungle and explained the Forest Keepers Families Program, in which Colombia pays the peasants for protecting the rain forest.

“Forest Keepers Families Program, supervised by the United Nations and financed by Colombia, is essential to protect the jungle and give communities an income to avoid deforestation in those zones where the jungle is replaced by illicit drugs or commercial agriculture. Until now, Colombia has invested more than 400 million dollars of it own budget in that program and has protected 90 thousand rural families against the temptation of illicit drugs”, he pointed out.

The Head of State also said that Colombia is committed not to increase the proportion of the emissions as economy activities grow: “Moreover, we want to decrease the proportion of those emissions”.

At the end, he expressed that Colombia will continue with the generation of clean energy (hydroelectric), which today reaches 85 per cent, and reiterated that the production of ethanol and bio-diesel is not committing the jungle nor risking food security.

In the last years, Colombia has not been a country unconnected to the damage of climate change; it has suffered from severe floods to droughts.  In addition to that, there has been erosion in the coasts and melting of snowcapped mountains.